Project Leonardo da Vinci
Design of a model for joint university-enterprise innovation
U-SME Innovation
MAP OF THE COMPANY INNOVATION POTENTIAL
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE COMPANY ASSESSMENT AND THE METHODOLOGY OF ITS EVALUATION
University of WestBohemia
Faculty of Economics
Department of management, innovations and projects
June 2001
Available at:
Authors:
Ing. Jiří Vacek (editor), Ing. Emil Vacík, doc. Ing. Jiří Skalický Csc., Ing Yvona Šlechtová - Department of management, innovations and projects, Faculty of Economics, University of West Bohemia
Ing. Jana Klementová, Ing. Jan Naxera, Ing. Zbyněk Doležal - BIC Plzeň
The project has been completed with the support of the Leonardo da Vinci programme. The contents do not necessarily reflect the Commission's own position.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......
QUESTIONNAIRE: “ MAP OF THE COMPANY INNOVATION POTENTIAL”......
A STRATEGY AND PLANNING......
B MARKETING......
C TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS......
D QUALITY, ENVIRONMENT......
E LOGISTICS (PURCHASE, DISTRIBUTION, OUTSOURCING)......
F ORGANIZATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES......
MANUAL FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE......
ASTRATEGY AND PLANNING......
BMARKETING......
Knowledge management and innovations (common introduction for parts C, D)......
Management process of science and research......
Mapping of knowledge relations......
Human resources management in science and research......
Management of the company’s intellectual potential......
Management of information technologies......
C TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS......
D QUALITY, ENVIRONEMENT......
ELOGISTICS (Purchase, distribution, outsourcing)......
Company transformation management......
Factors of the innovation projects success......
Basic purpose of reengineering......
Introduction of the reengineering principles......
Reengineering and implementation of the long-term strategic goal......
FORGANIZATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES......
Company culture......
Motivating elements influencing the innovation environment in the company......
Conflicts in leading of work groups......
COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE......
EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL CATEGORIES OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE......
COMPUTER SUPPORT OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE'S EVALUATION......
Interactive work with the questionnaire......
Processing of results using Excel application......
INTRODUCTION
This guide consists of two main parts - questionnaire mapping the company preparedness to innovation and manual for its evaluation. It is intended for the joint work of the company with the consultant and its purpose is the initial assessment of the innovation potential. The result of this assessment serves to the customization of further training program which should help to introduce or improve the work with innovations.
The first step is to answer the questionnaire. We recommend to several company managers to answer the questions independently and then to confront their answers and to try to reach consensus representing the point of view of the company management. These answers are then evaluated by the consultant. If it is difficult to reach the consensus, then the consultant can be invited as the facilitator. Computer support, described in more detail in the last part of the guide, can be used for the work with the questionnaire.
The consultant interprets the answers and prepares the report for the company management. Jointly with the management they then develop the action plan of the future training.
If the company is evaluated in more areas as not sufficiently well prepared for innovations, it is necessary to implement significant changes before implementation of the system of work with innovations. The proposal and implementation of these changes is out of the framework of this project.
If the company is evaluated at least as average in relation to its preparedness to innovation, it can get down to further step - introduction or improvement of its innovation system. This process can use techniques described in other guide of this series - " "
The guides were prepared with support of the Leonardo da Vinci programme. The authors would like to thank to all who provided valuable feedback.
We would like to wish to all users much success with the work with the guides. We would be glad if you share with us your experience and your ideas how to improve it.
Plzeň, June 2001
SME - innovation potential1/70
QUESTIONNAIRE: “ MAP OF THE COMPANY INNOVATION POTENTIAL”
Dear Sirs,
This questionnaire includes several groups of issues related to the company innovation potential. By filling-out the questionnaire thoroughly, you will obtain an overview of the strong and weak points in your company and what deserves your attention.
There are always four alternative answers offered for individual groups of issues. After evaluating them, please tick off the answer characterizing the situation in your company most precisely. If you find it necessary to provide supplementary information, use free lines.
questionnaire for the company innovation potential identification
HYPOTHESIS
A company with high innovation potential meets the individual indicators in the following spheres: by scoring maximum levels:
A)Strategy and planning
B)Marketing
C)Technological process
D)Quality management
E)Logistics
F)Human resources
Scoring of the existing company standard:
Doesn’t meet the requirements at all / Meets the requirements partially / Meets the requirements on an average level / Meets the requirements very wellFormulation of answers:
There are 4 alternative answers defined for every particular problem, corresponding with the above-given criteria. The answers are formulated in such a manner so that they reflect the existing situation in the company. It is important to quickly respond, not to take study time.
Example:
- Monitoring and systemic analysis of changes and development trends that can influence the quality system to a considerable degree
a)We do not follow the changes in a systemic manner
b)When introducing new products or processes we analyze whether they correspond to the current standards and regulations
c)We follow and analyze the changes and trends in a systemic manner, we design new products and processes in such a manner so that they would meet the current trends and predicted modifications
d)Quality system is always in the center of attention, at the same time we try to influence the changes and trends actively (by means of professional associations, politicians, etc.)
A STRATEGY AND PLANNING
1. Idea about the company future
a)We do not pay much attention to the more remote future, present and current problems are important to us
b)There’s a certain idea of the company’s future in the company, however it is not specified in written form and worked out into a plan
c)Our company has a written vision for the time horizon of 1 – 2 years and short-time plans are based on it
d)The company attempts to develop its visions into its business plan for at least a middle-time outlook (3 –5 years or 2 –3 product generations)
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2.Vision and employees
a)It is not necessary to introduce the vision to the employees; their tasks are determined by their superiors according to the company’s needs
b)In case of interest, the employees can learn about the company vision from their senior colleagues
c)The vision is regularly communicated to the company employees
d)The company employees participate on forming of the company vision and their comments are dealt with on the management level
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3. Company innovation programs
a)Only short-time plans are prepared according to the current market opportunities, the company does not have a comprehensive innovation program
b)The plan is formed for one year with regard to the company’s current situation; the company does not have enough resources for the creation of innovation programs
c)Orientation plan is prepared for 2 –3 years, innovation programs are adopted when the company is forced to innovate because of the competitors’ activity on the market
d)The business plan relies on implementation of innovations as an indispensable condition for the achievement of the company vision
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4. Plan modifications
a)Considering the operational action management practice, the company does not use any long-term planning
b)The company aims at following the chosen strategy and plan indicators, eventual changes would cause chaos in the course of the project
c)The changes are incorporated into the project when the previous project result analysis shows incompatibility with the original prognosis
d)If an incompatibility with the given plan occurs during a routine check-up of the project implementation, we carry out operational changes
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5 Financial indicators of the plan
a)The plan financial indicators are not specified beforehand
b)The company tries to achieve the turnover set in the revenue plan, other indicators are not predefined
c)The company carries out costs monitoring with regard to operation profit, other data (besides the revenues volume) are not important to the company
d)The business plan goal and strategies are converted into clear financial plan indicators and every business case is evaluated according to them before being accepted
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6 Project management
a)The operational, day-to-day management prevails in the company, new approaches are not being considered
b)The projects are selected on operative basis with regard to the market opportunities, the full use of the company capacity is a priority
c)New projects are selected operatively, on the basis of the market opportunity; company strategy plays only secondary role
d)Selection of new projects is always in accordance with the company long-term strategy, which places stress on innovations as a mean of increasing of the company’s future value
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B MARKETING
1 Monitoring of current market trends
a)Marketing activities are not planned and are performed mostly spontaneously as an instant reaction to the market changes
b)The company has only partial information about the market trends for its marketing planning
c)The company tries to follow the market development and take the expected trends into consideration when preparing its marketing activities
d)The market development is thoroughly observed, the identified trends play decisive role in adopting of conclusions about long-term marketing activities and overall company organisation
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2 Evaluation of the market competition position
a)The company does not evaluate its the market competition position
b)Market is monitored only when some problems occur and it is necessary to find out what is the actual position of the company
c)The company has an overview of the competition on the market and the company’s market position is monitored continuously, but not fully regularly
d)Thanks to systemic monitoring of the situation on the market, company’s competition position is precisely known at any moment and at the same time it is possible to estimate competitors’ further intentions
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3 Customer-orientation of the company
a)The company is convinced that the product qualities meet the customer’s needs and it is not necessary to waste time on further research
b)Management solves the marketing issues with the traders who know from their practice what the customers need
c)The company analyses customer’s requirements and the acquired knowledge is used in preparations of marketing activities
d)The company regularly monitors customers’ needs, evaluates information gained from them uses the results in marketing and strategy formation
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4 Monitoring of customers’ attitudes to the company product
a)Customers’ attitudes are not regularly monitored as the negative response shows quickly anyway
b)The company carried out several random activities in this sphere
c)Customer satisfaction is monitored irregularly, particularly when it is necessary to use this information for the company’s further activities
d)The company has and uses a sophisticated system of regular collection of customers’ opinions and this information reflects back upon the company’s activities
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5 Market information flow inside the company
a)Existing knowledge gained from the practice is sufficient and known to all responsible employees and for that reason it is not necessary to pay systematic attention to further collection and processing of information
b)Responsible employees usually follow the information about market, consumers and competition; they are not systematically shared within the company
c)Information about the market is registered in the company’s information system, the employees do not fully use it
d)The company has a sophisticated information system that is used by responsible employees
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6 Marketing and financial control
a)Marketing is not interconnected with financial planning
b)Marketing is interconnected with financial planning, but the effectiveness of the individual marketing activities is not evaluated
c)The company has a short-term marketing plan, which is continuously evaluated both from marketing and financial point of view
d)The company has a long-term marketing plan, on its basis evaluates its activities and operatively introduces modifications into marketing and financial plans
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C TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS
1 Future company’s competitiveness in the industry
a)Currently the company does not continuously monitor new technologies in the industry
b)Creative employees follow the know-how development in the industry in their own interest
c)As a part of their job description, the creative employees should follow the know-how and new technologies development in the industry and incorporate new findings into their work
d)There’s an appointed employee (or department) that is in charge of monitoring of knowledge and new technologies with the competitors and in the world (benchmarkog, following of specialised articles, books, websites, trade fairs, patents, ...) and informs the management and company employees on regular basis
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2 Changes of used technologies
a)The company cannot afford to change its technologies at the time being
b)Changes are introduced under the pressure from outside, mostly randomly
c)Changes are introduced in accordance with the plan, after their introduction their contribution is not any more specifically monitored or evaluated
d)Technology changes are planned and their effectiveness is always evaluated
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3 Collection of impulses for implementation of technology changes
a)Impulses for changes are not collected in a systematic manner
b)Impulses for changes usually come from inside the company, there’s no system how to work with them
c)Impulses are collected both from inside and outside the company, the system of work with them is introduced in the company
d)Impulses for changes are collected both from inside and outside the company and are collected by a responsible employee (department), they are registered, sorted out and regularly evaluated by the team
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4 Evaluation of the investment returnability of the planned changes in the company
a)Little attention is paid to investment returnability in the company
b)Investment returnability is calculated only in gross estimates
c)Detailed financial analyses are carried out before important and cost-consuming investment activities
d)Investment returnability of planned changes is usually included in the feasibility study
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5 Production costs calculation and their further monitoring inside the company
a)Costs are set by means of estimates and their development is usually not followed
b)There’s a general cost calculation methodology, however there’s no feedback of their development
c)There’s a precise cost calculation methodology, only final comparison is performed on regular basis, it’s results serve as a correction for the next project
d)There’s a precise cost calculation methodology, the costs are continuously evaluated and the company immediately reacts to possible divergences
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6 Creation of resources for development
a)The development does not immediately concern us and for that reason we do not assign any resources for it so far
b)Development would be useful for the company, currently the company does not manage to create resources for it
c)The company tries to ensure resources for development from various available sources but they often do not cover the necessary amount
d)Resources for development represent a stable part of the budget and besides that the company tries to obtain additional resources for development from other available resources
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D QUALITY, ENVIRONMENT
1 Monitoring of changes conditioning the quality management in the company
a)For capacity reasons the company cannot monitor changes and development trends in the quality system
b)When introducing new products and/or processes the company attempts to comply with existing standards, regulations etc.
c)Changes and trends are monitored and analysed in a systemic manner, new products and/or processes are designed in such a manner so that they meet the existing conditions
d)Changes and trends are monitored and analysed in a systemic manner, new products and/or processes are designed in such a manner so that they would not only meet the existing conditions but also predictable modifications
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2 Evaluation of the employees’ personal contribution to the quality system in the company
a)Evaluation system of the employees’ personal contribution to the quality is not introduced in the company
b)Work quality of individual employees is not systematically monitored, it is not followed for the work groups
c)The company carries out quality monitoring of individuals and teams; long-term trends are analysed and the employees are motivated for higher quality
d)The company introduced the certified system of quality management, which directly implies the evaluation of the employees and teams contribution to the quality and their motivation
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3 External quality audit in the company
a)External partners do not require to demonstrate the product quality, for that reason the company has not yet dealt with quality audit
b)The company methodically prepares for the external quality audit for its future business partners
c)External audits are carried out in the company only from the side of the customer, the company itself does not perform any external audits at its suppliers
d)Within its implemented quality system the company systematically performs external quality audits at its suppliers and such audits are carried out in our company by its customers